


night, beneath the stars

by chewhy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Childhood, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, POV Tsukishima Kei, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Sleepovers, ~yearning~
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26387323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chewhy/pseuds/chewhy
Summary: Later, Yamaguchi cries thick hot tears of embarrassment as he calls his mom, getting scolded over the phone for not telling her where he disappeared off to after volleyball practice. In the hallway just around the kitchen, Tsukishima overhears Yamaguchi respond in a shaky voice, “But Kei-kun is my best friend now!”Whatever it is, it seems to do the trick and after Tsukishima’s mom apologizes over the phone, Yamaguchi’s allowed to stay the night.“Oh, so I’m your best friend now, huh?” Tsukishima teases back in his room.“Shut up!” Yamaguchi answers, face still blotchy and red with tears.their nights have always been better together
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 174
Collections: chewhy's completed commissions





	night, beneath the stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Med_uwu203](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Med_uwu203/gifts).



> Uhhh note: i know that akiteru and kei are both tsukishima lol but just for flow tsukishima will always refer to kei and akiteru will be “akiteru” or “brother”
> 
> thank you @medd_uwu for this lovely prompt! i had so much fun writing it and i really hope you enjoy it :D

Tsukishima sighs, taking his glasses off so he can wipe them down again. He hears a scuffle of feet behind him, starting and stopping just around the corner he’s passed. 

“You can come out now,” he calls out, frowning as he turns to face the boy who’s been following him for the past five blocks since practice had ended. It’s become something of a routine for them this past week, ever since that day he’d first shown up. 

There’s the scuffle of feet again before a pair of hands peek around the corner, followed by a dark green tuft of hair. When Tsukishima raises an eyebrow, the boy stumbles forward as if pushed by an imaginary blow of wind.

“Hi.”

“Tch,” Tsukishima snorts. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“I’m Tadashi!” he answers. This, at least, he says confidently. “Yamaguchi Tadashi. You’re Tsukishima Kei, aren’t you?”

“You’re not a stalker, are you?” Tsukishima teases, laughing when he sees Yamaguchi Tadashi blush and wrinkle his nose. “Do you play video games?”

Yamaguchi Tadashi nods vigorously at that. 

“Are you any good?”

Another nod, this time more hesitant. 

Tsukishima grins. “Let’s go play then,” he decides, striding forward. “It’s boring to play with my brother because he always wins. I bet I can beat you, though.” Yamaguchi nods again at that and Tsukishima wants to laugh. “Don’t you know how to talk?”

“I do, too!” Yamaguchi whines, jogging a little to catch up with Tsukishima’s long legs. “I just didn’t want you to be mean to me.”

Rolling his eyes, Tsukishima pulls his bag up higher on his shoulder. “People are always going to be mean; you just have to learn to deal with it.” 

Yamaguchi’s eyes are large and round as he hangs onto Tsukishima’s words like they’re scripture, nodding eagerly in agreement. They walk all the way back to Tsukishima’s house like that, with Tsukishima pointing out all the details he knows about the alleys and backstreets of his neighborhood while Yamaguchi listens raptly, hanging onto each and every syllable. 

–

Hours later, Yamaguchi cries thick hot tears of embarrassment as he calls his mom, getting scolded over the phone for not telling her where he had disappeared off to after volleyball practice. In the hallway just around the kitchen, Tsukishima overhears Yamaguchi respond in a shaky voice, “But Kei-kun is my best friend now!”

Whatever it is, it seems to do the trick and after Tsukishima’s mom apologizes over the phone, Yamaguchi’s allowed to stay the night. 

“Oh, so I’m your best friend now, huh?” Tsukishima teases back in his room. 

“Shut up!” Yamaguchi answers, face still blotchy and red with tears. 

Tsukishima shrugs but can’t seem to wipe the grin off his face as he lets Yamaguchi borrow his favorite Iron Man pajamas. 

He’s never had a best friend before, either. 

– 

They watch with bated breath as the coin flips in a high arc through the air, inverting once, twice, thrice, faster and faster until they can barely keep track with their bare eyes. Tsukishima holds his breath as he watches it fall back into Tadashi’s open palm, glinting silver for a brief millisecond before it’s covered by Tadashi’s other hand. 

“Heads or tails?”

Tsukishima squints harder at the back of Tadashi’s hand as if that’ll reveal all the answers to him. “Tails, duh.”

Tadashi’s hand lifts to reveal…

Heads. 

Tsukishima sighs. “This game is lame, anyway. Let’s do something else.”

“What?” Tadashi asks, sitting upright in his bed. “No way, they were your rules!”

Tsukishima manages to pout for about two more seconds before a pillow is descending on his face and he screams, “Ahg!” It’s not lame at all - it’s simply a surprise reaction. 

“You promised, Tsukki! Hurry up! Hurry up!”

“Okay, okay!” Tsukishima shouts out, batting away Tadashi’s attacks. “I don’t know how you ever intend to become an ace server with those weak little arms of yours,” he grumbles as he hops up off the bed. 

Tadashi narrows his eyes but curls up on the bed anyway, nestling further into the blankets. “Ah, it’s so cozy and warm here. It’s probably _freezing_ outside. Have fun!”

Tsukishima throws a pillow at Tadashi’s face as he leaves. The resounding _oof_ is not nearly as satisfying as it should be, especially when followed up by a loud peal of laughter. 

“Tsukishima! Where are you headed off to?” Tadashi’s mother calls out from the kitchen as he slips on his shoes. 

“Just down to the corner store, oba-san.” He leaves off the fact that he’s been _tricked_ by her devious only son into going and running his ice cream errands, but it must show on his pout as Tadashi’s mother laughs, slipping him a couple of bills, even as he insists otherwise. Grudgingly, he accepts the small allowance and steps outside, shivering as the chill seeps through his jacket. 

Luckily, it isn’t too far down to the store, and Tsukishima sighs, watching his breath blow through the air. 

“Tsukki!”

Frowning, Tsukishima turns to see Tadashi hobbling out, one shoe half on and the other still on his hand. “What do you want, idiot?”

Tadashi grins, hopping on one foot as he gets close enough to hold onto Tsukishima’s shoulder for support as he slips his shoes on properly. “Ah, I figured I’d come keep you company. Wouldn’t want you to get lost or anything.”

Tsukishima snorts, “As if I’d get lost walking two and a half blocks over. I bet you were just afraid I’d forget your favorite ice cream flavor.”

Tadashi shrugs easily, standing up straight and walking ahead now. “It’s probably too cold for ice cream anyway. Maybe we can get some meat buns.”

Tsukishima hides his smile in the collar of his jacket as he follows along, not commenting on the fact that Tadashi doesn’t even like to eat savory foods so late at night. So much for the rules of the game. 

–

Right as the swell of the music crescendos, something sharp and annoying hits the back of his head. Turning around sharply, he glares at Tadashi who laughs and reaches forward to pull the headphones off of Tsukishima’s head. 

“Whatcha listening to?” 

Tsukishima makes a vague gesture with his hand but Tadashi doesn’t slip the headphones over his head to listen in the way he normally does. 

“Tsukki,” he begins contemplatively. 

“Hmm?” Tsukishima asks, flipping through his textbook absentmindedly. 

“Do you want to go camping together?”

Tsukishima looks up that, watches the way Tadashi’s eyes flick to the side while he wrings his hands together tightly. “Camping?” he asks, his tone dripping disgust at the thought of lying out in the wilderness, bugs creeping up his arms and legs. He watches as the smile twists a little on Tadashi’s face. 

“It could be fun, you know?” Tadashi picks at the corner of his own textbook, shredding thin strips of paper off of it in a way that’s just asking for trouble if the teacher sees. 

Tsukishima shrugs before turning back to his desk. “I’m bringing my DS.”

Tadashi barely has time to squeal in excitement before the teacher is walking by, frowning as she smacks his hand away from the textbook. 

–

“Ni-san,” Tsukishima asks in the doorway, fidgeting with his glasses as he waits for his brother to put down his book. 

Akiteru looks up a moment later, smiling fondly back at him. “What’s up, Kei? You finally tired of acting too edgy for playing with your older brother?”

Tsukishima grumbles but picks his way over to his brother’s bed anyway, flopping back and fiddling with one of the figurines on the shelf next to it. “Can I borrow some of your camping gear?” 

“Camping?” Akiteru asks, a hint of a smile on his face as he leans forward into Tsukishima’s space. “Are you finally going to take your big brother up on his offer to show you around the valley?”

Tsukishima makes a face, shoving Akiteru away with the back of his hand. “No way. Tadashi invited me to go camping with him and his family over the weekend, I just need your stuff.”

Akiteru sighs dramatically at that, laying a hand across his forehead as he slumps back in his chair. “Kei, how come you never wanna go camping with me? Am I not good enough for you? What does Tadashi have that I – _oh_.” He pops back up with a grin. “Indeed, what _does_ Tadashi have that I don’t?”

Tsukishima is already out of the room before Akiteru is done with his sentence, slamming the door as he goes. Akiteru chuckles and yells loudly after him, “I’ll let you borrow my stuff, but you have to go camping with me sometime, too!”

–

“Wow, you’re really prepared, Tsukki!” 

Tsukishima shows up to Tadashi’s house a few days later armed with three separate brands of bug spray and plenty of sunscreen. “This better not be lame, Yamaguchi.”

Tadashi laughs, helping him load his bag into the car as he promises, “No way, it’s gonna be awesome!”

Tsukishima’s fully prepared to grumble his way through the entire car ride about “outdoorsy people” and “I bet you wake up early for fun, too” but in mere minutes, his head is lolling to the side as the car rolls up and down hills and curves around the mountainside. 

“Tsukki,” a voice whispers into his ear as somebody shakes him awake. “Tsukki, we’re here!” 

Tsukishima blinks his eyes open to take in the bright orange glow of the setting sun. They’re probably not even halfway up the mountain but his breath still manages to catch in his throat as he looks out over the edge of the parking lot and down into the valley. 

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Tadashi’s dad asks and Tsukishima turns in surprise to see that Tadashi’s already run halfway across the lot. “Here, take these,” he continues, dumping a load of equipment that must weigh twice Tsukishima’s own weight into his arms. “We have a bit of a ways to go before getting to the camping site. It’s better to do it all in one trip,” he says with a smile. 

Tsukishima frowns but trudges along behind Tadashi anyways. 

The image of the sunset remains seared into his mind’s eye, floating like little ghost specters around the back of Tadashi’s head. 

–

“Tadashi.”

The soft sound of breathing and pencil scratching across paper fills the room around them. 

“Tadashi, what’d you get for problem seven?”

“Kccrgh.”

“Tadashi, what in the hell–” Tsukishima breaks off in his rant as he turns to see Tadashi, sprawled across his bed with his face buried between the pages of his textbook. The pages flutter slightly with each snored breath and somehow, by a miracle of miracles, Tadashi’s hand continues to move across his page, scribbling out lines of gibberish and crossing over his already well-written notes. 

Tsukishima sighs, gently prying the pencil out of Tadashi’s hand and pulling the notebooks out from under Tadashi’s chin. “So much for pulling an all-nighter together for the exam,” he mutters bitterly, even as he pulls the blanket over Tadashi’s back. 

Flicking out the ceiling light, Tsukishima turns back to his desk, letting the soft glow of his desk lamp wash over him, mingling with the pale gray of the stars outside as he writes out solutions into neat and organized boxes - easier for Tadashi to speed read tomorrow morning as they gobble down breakfast before running off to class. 

He works late into the night until eventually, his head bobs forward slowly and dips into his textbook, too. 

– 

Tsukishima sighs, frowning down at the way Hinata, in all his one hundred and sixty centimeter glory (“It’s actually one hundred sixty-two centimeters,” Hinata mumbles in his sleep, scratching at his stomach where a breeze dances across the strip of exposed skin. Tsukishima is absolutely terrified.) has somehow managed to spread himself out across three cots. 

“Psst, Tsukki,” he hears a small whisper over from another corner of the room. Squinting his eyes, he barely makes out the outline of Tadashi in the dark shadows, the small piece of hair forever sticking up and out above his head like an antenna. In the light of the moonlight streaming in through the window, he looks rather like a strange little alien and Tsukishima has to hold in a laugh as he carefully steps around each of the sleeping figures of the Karasuno volleyball club. 

He finds Tadashi equally squashed up against a wall as Tanaka and Nishinoya roll over each other in their sleep and lets slip the laugh he was holding back as he makes eye contact with Tadashi. 

They sit there, backs against the wall as their shoulders shake in silent laughter. It’s probably not nearly funny enough to require a full ten minutes of catching their breath, but the stillness of the night just makes them double over again when their eyes meet, just as they thought they were over it. 

It reminds Tsukishima of the nights when they were young, sneaking into the kitchen late at night to grab an extra snack and letting out the breath they didn’t know they were holding when they were safely back in his room. Tadashi must have the same thought as he nudges Tsukishima with his shoulder once they’ve finally settled down, stomachs aching from laughing. 

“Remember those times we went camping together?” he asks, leaning his head onto Tsukishima’s shoulder. 

“Mhmm,” he hums, letting his voice vibrate into Tadashi’s side in answer. 

“Do you still remember those constellations you showed me?”

Tsukishima leans his head back and squints out the window. He’s silent for a moment before he points out one hand and says, “Look, there’s Orion.”

“Really?” Tadashi asks, sitting up to peek out for himself. 

“No, I was lying,” Tsukishima says, grinning. “I’m not wearing my glasses, idiot.”

“Oh.”

A beat of silence stretches between them before they’re dissolving into another fit of giggles, this time louder than before. 

“Hah?” Tanaka’s voice suddenly rings out right next to them and they freeze in their tracks, eyes darting down to see that Tanaka’s still sleeping, just muttering threats and curses under his breath as he rolls over Nishinoya and into Kageyama’s side where they curl into one another. 

They spend the rest of the night like that, turning red from silent laughter until the weariness from a full day of practice takes over their bodies and sleep settles heavy on their eyes. 

“Goodnight, Tsukki.”

“‘Night, Tadashi.”

– 

Tsukishima shivers as the cold of the floor sends chills up his ankles. Stooping down to pick up his clothes, he curses under his breath as his knees crack loudly. Who knew he’d be feeling so old in only his early twenties?

“Tsukki?” a sleepy voice calls from behind him. 

“Tadashi,” he answers in a low murmur, turning to stroke back his hair. He usually tries to be quieter when he leaves, doesn’t want to wake Tadashi and have him be sleepy during his morning classes. “Go back to sleep.”

“Mm,” he murmurs, shifting a little in the tiny twin bed provided by the dorms that five foot ten guy barely fits in, much less a second who's five inches taller. “Sleep over, Tsukki?” Tadashi asks, burying his head back into the warmth of the blankets. His voice is soft and small, but Tsukishima sees the way his hands wring the edge of the blanket, even as he lifts it to cover his face. 

Tsukishima sighs, looking down at his shirt bunched in his hands. The drive back to his own college _is_ long. And judging by the stars dotted outside the window, it _is_ pretty late. Or maybe, without all the excuses, he just wants to stay. 

He lets the shirt fall back down to the floor. “Don’t hog the covers, idiot.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi, my name is chewy and my specialty is ~yearning~
> 
> find me on [[twitter (ch3w2)](https://twitter.com/ch3w2)] and [[tumblr (ch3w2)](http://ch3w2.tumblr.com/)]!  
>  **kudos and comments always appreciated**
> 
> my carrd is [b4k95.carrd.co](https://ch3w2.carrd.co/) for more information about requests


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